This report maintains that it is just as unacceptable to allow millions of children to die each year from needless infection and malnutrition as it is to let them die in sudden emergencies of drought and famine. The world now has the means to attack childhood malnutrition and disease on a massive scale and at an affordable cost. Four million children's lives have been saved in the last five years by nations which have mobilized to put low-cost solutions into effect. Discussed are (1) potential benefits to social development of today's new capacity for mass communication; (2) scientific information which would enable parents to protect the lives and growth of their children; (3) the current success and future potential of oral rehydration therapy; (4) the spread of low cost immunization in the 1980s throughout the developing world; (5) the benefits of social mobilization to achieve specific health goals; and (6) the use of growth checking as a means of information dissemination to parents. The report concludes that the strategy of social mobilization may allow almost every individual and organization in the world to become involved in the fight against poverty. Insert panels describe the experiences of various nations in bringing about drastic improvements in child survival and development. A statistical section provides figures for 130 major nations for child survival rates, nutrition, health, education, population, and economic progress, as well as selected data for less populous countries. (BN)